Paramedics boost success rate in reviving cardiac arrest victims

Dennis and Rose Wingfield in their Northville Township home. Rose began CPR on Dennis on May 15, 2017, after she determined with the help of a township emergency dispatcher that he was in cardiac arrest.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)Buy Photo

Medical first responders in Northville Township have dramatically improved their ability to revive victims of cardiac arrest and help them return to normal lives.

In the past 12 months, Northville Township Fire Department paramedics have restored pulses to 19 of 28 patients who were in full cardiac arrest — that is, who had no pulse and were not breathing. That success rate, nearly 68 percent, is more than double the Michigan and national rates, according to Fire Chief Brent Siegel.

Of those 28, seven, or 25 percent, were eventually discharged from a hospital with "no deficits," said Siegel, meaning they had no loss of brain function and were able to resume the quality of life they had before they were stricken. That rate is also more than twice the reported U.S. and Michigan successful discharge rates, the chief said; according to the American Heart Association, nearly 90 percent of people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die from it.

Siegel, who reviews data from every cardiac arrest-related NTFD run, is spreading the word about what he calls "high-performance" cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which he credits for the improvements.

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Northville Township firefighters Chris Kolinski (left) and Greg Ryan demonstrate cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a dummy at the Six Mile Road station. Northville Township has dramatically improved survival rates patients in cardiac arrest through a combination of dispatcher intervention and developing a "pit-crew" approach once rescue workers are on the scene.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)

"I want everyone around us to have the same chance at survival as you do here," Siegel said recently at the fire station.

Before the practices were adopted about three years ago, he said, the NTFD's cardiac arrest revival statistics were similar to the state and national numbers.

"Some people downplayed our data initially," he said of the numbers showing increased success. "It's certainly not downplayed anymore."

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Northville Township Fire Chief Brent Siegel talks about how the department has dramatically increased survival rates for those going through cardiac arrest.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)

The department's essentials for increased success, Siegel said, are an appropriate response by dispatchers who field emergency calls, including talking bystanders through CPR if needed; having bystanders perform chest compressions until paramedics arrive; and having chest compressions uninterrupted to the extent possible.

"We have not had a successful case without a bystander doing CPR unless we've had an exceptional response time" of less than about two minutes, Siegel said.

High-performance CPR, the chief said, involves getting enough paramedics (preferably seven) on the scene and choreographing patient care so as to minimize the interruption of chest compressions. Any task that could interrupt chest compressions, such as checking for a pulse, opening an airway or moving the patient, is now approached in a "pit crew" fashion with the goal of eliminating interruptions.

Dennis Wingfield of Northville Township was one of the victims revived within the past year.

"People need to know about the good work these guys are doing," Wingfield said recently by phone.

It was about 8 p.m. May 15, Wingfield said, when he went unconscious in the kitchen of the house he shares with his wife, Rose.

"I didn't have any feeling of pain or anything. I just remember telling her I was going to pass out," Wingfield said.

Eariler in the day, Wingfield had felt ill and had gone to the emergency room, but was discharged after everything checked out. Now, he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

A township dispatcher coached Rose Wingfield through chest compressions, and a police officer, arriving in just a few minutes, took over. Paramedics arrived and later and transported Wingfield to St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia.

"I have no recollection of this," he said. "They said I was joking with them, cracking jokes with the guys in the ambulance." Wingfield's first memory, after being revived, is of being in the hospital a few days later, he said.

A retired mechanical engineer who with his wife has a faith-based marriage coaching and marriage preparation ministry, Wingfield is being treated but has "been living a pretty normal life since the event," he said.

"They did an awesome job and I was able to go over and meet the (paramedic) crew," he said. "That was pretty special to me."

Siegel, armed with statistics, has been reaching out to other departments, sharing information to help them improve their outcomes. Many, he said, don't track their cardiac arrest outcomes data, a practice he encourages.

"You can't improve what you don't measure," he said.

Siegel also attended a seminar at the Seattle Resuscitation Academy, which is dedicated to improving cardiac arrest survival rates using practices that have been successful in the Seattle area.

The academy, he said, "validated everything else that we were doing."

The NTFD offers chest-compression-only CPR training to township residents and people who work at township businesses.